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Several First Nations in British Columbia have made it clear they don’t want the Northern Gateway pipeline and its oil tankers in their territory and that means Enbridge’s $7-billion project could be in limbo for a long time.

Aboriginal groups along the northern coast are especially resolute in their opposition to a pipeline that would ship diluted but still sticky bitumen from Alberta to B.C’s northern coast where it would be loaded onto supertankers that would have to navigate tricky waters before heading across the open ocean to China.

Settling the question of aboriginal and treaty rights to the satisfaction of all participants is key to the pipeline proceeding says Ken Chapman, former executive director of the Oil Sands Developers’ Group.

“The federal government needs to establish a framework so the conflicts between treaty rights and provincial rights over resources can be sorted out. So far that hasn’t happened,” says Chapman, who left the OSDG, which has since morphed into the Oil Sands Community Alliance, a year ago.

Chapman, an astute observer of Alberta politics and public policy for decades, isn’t the only one who believes the federal government needs to start taking seriously the responsibility it has to First Nations.

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A recent report on the indigenous people of Canada, prepared for the United Nations by special rapporteur James Anaya, states: “There appears to be a lack of a consistent framework or policy for the implementation of this duty to consult, which is contributing to an atmosphere of contentiousness and mistrust that is conducive neither to beneficial economic development nor social peace.”

After holding consultations across Canada, Anaya reported that the federal government told him that the constitutional duty to consult and accommodate First Nations in connection with resource development can be met through existing processes such as environment assessments.

But Anaya concluded that processes such as environmental assessments and National Energy Board hearings are not designed to address aboriginal and treaty rights.

Federal review panels are based on an adversarial framework, Anaya added, so there is no opportunity for real dialogue. And when consultations do occur it is usually the resource companies that organize them. But at that stage the project proposal has already been developed and First Nations concerns are treated as an expensive deviation.

Chapman agrees. He says we have to “change the culture” when it comes to planning these huge resource development projects.

“It’s inappropriate for Enbridge to be leading the consultation process with First Nations. This situation requires government-to-government negotiations and that means the federal government and First Nations governments,” Chapman said during an interview.

The resource development industries whether they be extracting bitumen from the tarsands or shipping it via pipeline, rail or tanker need to “own the impacts” of development and start “co-creating” solutions with those impacted by that development, he said.

In light of all the controversy and polarization over the Northern Gateway, it’s relevant to recall the McKenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry that was chaired by Justice Thomas Berger in the 1970s. The mandate for that inquiry, which included public hearings in settlements and villages across the Northwest Territories, was established by the federal department of Indian and Northern Affairs.

It was clear from the beginning that the main focus of the inquiry was the future well-being of the people of the north. And in the end the government decided against a pipeline.

So far, there is no such focus when it comes to the approval processes for the Northern Gateway.

That’s why First Nations such as the Gitxaala in B.C. and the Beaver Lake Cree in northern Alberta have turned to the courts to get oilsands project approvals overturned on the basis that aboriginal people were not properly consulted.

“We need to start the journey towards negotiations that bring First Nations and the federal government to the table. That’s what I hope will come out of all this,” says Chapman.

It will no doubt be a long and windy road. But if the pipeline is to become reality it’s the only way.

Gillian Steward is a Calgary writer and journalist and former managing editor of the Calgary Herald. Her column usually appears every other week.

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